Boulder Valley wants more feedback on school calendar

Parents, students and teachers soon will have an opportunity to take part in the debate about how early to start school, as the Boulder Valley School District revisits the academic calendar this fall.

On Tuesday, the school board heard an update on the plan to generate feedback that starts with an online process followed by two community forums. Based on the responses, a calendar committee will develop two or three options. Then the community will have a chance to comment on those options through an online survey.

Interest is expected to be high in the creation of a calendar for the next two years.

The school district's calendar was configured about five years ago to start in mid-August at the urging of secondary students and parents unhappy that finals were after winter break, requiring studying over vacation. Boulder Valley's start date also is in line with most other districts in the Denver metro area.

But last school year, parents and teachers complained that schools were unbearable during an August heat wave, prompting the district to consider pushing back this year's start date. Ultimately, the school board decided to keep the mid-August start date, take steps to keep buildings cooler and have a calendar committee this fall consider future changes.

At Tuesday's board meeting, district officials said they want more community involvement than in years past.

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For the online process, the district plans to contract with Mind Mixer. The community engagement software allows people to see what others are saying and have an online conversation. The online process is expected to start later this month, and the two community forums are planned for October.

"We're looking forward to using something that gets many, many more people involved," said Sandy Ripplinger, assistant superintendent for school leadership.

The calendar task force, which is expected to convene in November, will include district administrators, a principal representative, a teachers union representative and a district Parent Council representative.

The school board is expected to vote on a final calendar in December.

This school year, district officials said, milder temperatures the first week of school, plus cooler nights the second week, helped keep classroom temperatures lower during the last two weeks of August.

Over the summer break, district workers also applied a reflective solar film on as many south- and west-facing windows in non-air-conditioned buildings as they could before school started.

Twenty-four Boulder Valley elementary schools have no air conditioning in classrooms, and eight of those schools have no air conditioning at all.

Though complaints were fewer this year, parents remain concerned about heat and starting in mid-August.

Keven Truesdell, who has a fourth-grader at High Peaks Elementary and an eighth-grader at Southern Hills, said his fourth-grade son came home "worn out" from the heat. He wants a later start date.

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